l MONITORING HIGH VALUE PLANT SPECIES Lessons from the past & looking to the future.

Tony Cunningham

OVERVIEW• Why manage & monitor plant resources?

• Important needs: questions before we start..

• Strategic choices & sustaining harvest: resilience vs. vulnerability;

• 9 lessons: HVPS monitoring

• Thinking about the future…

WHY MANAGE RESOURCES?

• Livelihoods:avoid undermining local self sufficiency;

• Market reasons: gain market share when the market cares & back-up to claims of sustainability;

• Ecological & conservation reasons:avoid population crashes or extinctions & provide an incentive for maintaining habitat;

• Cultural reasons:maintain “cultural keystone species”

FOCAL “INDICATOR” SPECIES

SUSTAINABLE?: MONITORING IS NEEDED TO BACK UP CLAIMS….

BEFORE WE START...

• What is the overall objective (eg: biodiversity conservation, livelihoods, heterogenity within landscapes)?

• What question(s) are we trying to answer?

• How precise do we want to be?

• Who will do the work?

• What training needs before we can start (& how often)?

• What is the control (ie: compared to what)?

• Who will analyse the data?

WE ALSO TO ASK OURSELVES…

• Who will act on the results (& who will translate these into a suitable format for decision makers)?

• What is the spatial & time scale (rate of change; how big & where)?

• What other factors are also affecting the same resource? (& how can these be distinguished from what you are monitoring)?

• How long will it be before decisions regarding management options can be made?

WHAT OBJECTIVES FOR BAIKIAEA FOREST?

Increased human activity

(clearing, logging etc)

Increased human activity

(clearing, logging etc) Hot and/or

frequent fireHot and/or

frequent fire

Light and/or less frequent

fire

Light and/or less frequent

fire

Kalahari woodland & thicket

Kalahari woodland & thicket

Invasive trees & thicket

Invasive trees & thicket

GrasslandGrassland

Baikiaea forest

Baikiaea forest

Continuing fire

Continuing fire

Continuing fire

Continuing fire

Scrub/thicketScrub/thicket

FireFire

Regener-ation

Regener-ation

IMPORTANT NEEDS:

• Affordable in terms of time and money;

• Focused on priority species & at the right scale;

• Reliable & sufficiently accurate: no point if not reliable;

• Starts with an initial assessment of existing resource management practices (if any).

DO THE JOB PROPERLY…or risk disempowerment

“The results of inadequate monitoring can be

both misleading and dangerous not only because of their inability to detect ecologically significant changes, but also because they create the illusion that something useful has been done”

Legg, C J & L Nagy. 2006. Why most conservation monitoring is, but need not be, a waste of time. Journal of Environmental Management 78:194–199

LESSON 1: LOCAL PEOPLE ARE KEEN TO MONITOR THEIR HIGH VALUE PLANTS

….may be too keen…so priority setting is crucial!!

Potential for sustainable use influences how much input needs to put into management & monitoring.

MAKE STRATEGIC CHOICES FOR MANAGEMENT & MONITORING

Low potential for sustainable harvest

• vulnerable species• costly & complex M&M• high precision required

High potential for sustainable harvest

•resilient species• abundant, high value• lower input M&M

ECOLOGICAL KEYSTONE

SPECIES

Do they need special attention?

PRIORITISE SPECIES BY ABUNDANCE OR RARITY

1. Geographic

range

LARGE SMALL

2. Habitatspecificity

Wide Narrow Wide Narrow

3. Local population size

Large &dominant somewhere

Locally abundant, several habitats over large geographic area

Locally abundant in a specific habitat over small geographic area

Locally abundant, several habitats over large geographic area

Locally abundant in a specific habitat over small geographic area

Small, non-dominant

Constantly sparse in several habitats over a large geographic area

Constantly sparse in a specific habitat over a small geographic area

Constantly sparse in several habitats over a large geographic area

Constantly sparse in a specific habitat over a small geographic area

LESSON 2: THERE ARE SUCCESSES: Commiphora& linking different scales for

management, monitoring & business

DEVIL’S CLAW & “AFTER SALES SERVICE”

LESSON 3: CRUCIAL TO TAKE AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO HVPS

MANGEMENT & MONITORING

HVPSHVPS

ELEPHANTDAMAGE

ELEPHANTDAMAGE

FIREFIRE

TIMBER EXTRACTION

TIMBER EXTRACTION

GRAZERSGRAZERS

Focal areas

& species

Focal areas

& species

WHY IS PROTEA GAGUEDI EXTINCT IN NAMIBIA?

•“life on the edge”;• traditional use for roots;•Proteceae very suscepitible to fungal infection;• Possible elephant damage;• habitat disturbance, high (grass) fuel loads after high rainfall;• inappropriate management response (cement around roots). (

Namibia 1966 Zambia 2010

LESSON 4: SEVERAL HVPS NEED A SERIOUS RETHINK

• 1991 – WWF-US/pre-LIFE;• Event books (4 years, Kwando conservancy);• Cybertracker, Mark 1…what about new version?;• Links & lessons from game monitoring.• Local capacity;• National capacity;• Integrating different scales.

BERCHEMIA – a 4-17 year test

Why continue?

LESSON 5: LIMITS TO LOCAL CAPACITY – EVEN WITH TECHNICAL SUPPORT

But with small modifications, training & cross-checking there is great potential

REGULAR SUPPORT IS NEEDED TO GET RELIABLE DATA

When entered into a computer database in Windhoek, it gets its own reality…or may not yield anything useful at all.

LESSON 6: BENEFITS FROM LEARNING FROM CONSERVANCY APPROACHES TO

VALUE FROM WILDLIFE.

•Incentives through getting best value are crucial to Game counts linked to Event Books & quotas;

• Hunting quotas are advertized in an “auction system” to get best value;

• Why should there be a monopoly on commercial timber logging (eg: Kwando CF)?

LESSON 7: NEED TO HARMONIZE NATIONAL& LOCAL RULES WITH WHAT IS

HAPPENING IN PRACTICE

STAMPS? MGMT PLAN? MONITORING?

What basis for an annual allowable cut (if the objective is sustainable harvest of a protected species?)

LESSON 8: OPPORTUNITIES TO GET TIME DEPTH: FIXED POINT PHOTOS

KLT, 1966

BNP, 1966

Near Popa falls, 1966

FIXED POINT PHOTOS

• Cost effective;

• Slow, subtle changes visible;

• Finding historical photos & relocation can give time depth;

• Scale, measurements & “digital calipers”

1950

1995

2004

LESSON 9: LONG TIME-LAGS ARE COMMON

…and local “champion’s” & partnerships are crucial.

FUTURE OPTIONS: THERE ARE BENEFITS FROM BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Technology: Links to landscapes, links to cost effective data analysis & illegal activity monitoring

Cost effective tool for HVPS with scattered distributions?

CONCLUSIONS

• This is a good time for an assessment of HVPS monitoring;

• There would be real benefits for linking MET, NGO & Forestry efforts & common interests;

• Effective links could spread the load;• Invest in field-based training & regular “refresher

courses & cross-checks” (in 3-4 day courses, not a few hours).

• Carefully select priority species;• Think about the benefits of CONINFO.

THANK YOUTHANK YOU